1000+ images about Thylacine on Pinterest | On september, Wolves and Animals Forward The thylacine (or Tasmanian Tiger) was the largest known carnivorous marsupial. Native to continental Australia & Tasmania, it is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century. It had become extremely rare or extinct on the Australian mainland before European settlement, but it survived on the island of Tasmania. Intensive hunting is generally blamed for its extinction. Despite its official classification as extinct, sightings are still reported, though none have been conclusively… See More Tasmanian Tiger: End of Extinction - Top Documentary Films Top Documentary Films For preview only. Get it at Amazon.com . Tasmanian Tiger: End of Extinction Ratings: 7.93/10 from 14 users. Storyline The Thylacine was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. Native to Australia and New Guinea, it is thought to have become extinct in the 20th century.

It is commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger (because of its striped back), the Tasmanian Wolf, and colloquially the Tassie (or Tazzy) Tiger or simply the Tiger. It was the last extant member of its genus, Thylacinus, although several related species have been found in the fossil record dating back to the early Miocene. The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland thousands of years before European settlement of the continent, but it survived on the island of Tasmania along with several endemic species, including the Tasmanian Devil. Intensive hunting encouraged by bounties is generally blamed for its extinction, but other contributory factors may have been disease, the introduction of dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat. Despite being officially classified as extinct, sightings are still reported. 1000+ images about THYLACINE • on Pinterest | Wombat, Museums and Natural history Forward The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times. It is commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger (because of its striped back) or the Tasmanian wolf.

It was native to continental Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea, and it became extinct in the 20th century. See More Unknown Explorers - Thylacine View Artwork Unlike the majority of cryptids the Thylacine, also known as The Tasmanian Tiger, is scientifically documented and cataloged as a real, thought now extinct, creature which lived in Australia up until about 12,000 years ago. The Tasmanian Tiger closely resembled a dog, but was actually a carnivorous marsupial belonging to the same family as the kangaroo and Tasmanian devil. The male Thylacine would reach 6 feet in length from head to tail and weigh upwards of 45 pounds while the females where slightly smaller. The fur of the Thylacine was coarse and sandy brown until about mid back where distinctive stripes began. These stripes, like those of a tiger, ran down to the tail, which was long, thin, inflexible and did not wag. Like other marsupials the Thylacine had pouches in which they carried their young. The opening of these pouches faced towards the rear of the animal, rather than towards the head, like the Kangaroo.

Thylacines often hunted in pairs as they did not boost great run speed, but compensated that with excellent stamina and often exhausted its prey through constant chase. Using powerful elongated jaws with a huge gape that could crush the skulls of its victims the Thylacine hunted many different animals, including the powerful kangaroo. Thylacines showed no fear when cornered, and would often kill several tracking dogs before brought down. The Thylacines normally did not make any sound, though sometimes would make a quick double yip noise, no known recording of this noise exists. Thylacines were primarily nocturnal animals and little is known about their social habits. From shot and captured specimens it seems that a typical Thylacine litter was 3 or 4 pups which spent the early portion of there lives in the mothers pouch. Thylacines that were captured alive and put into captivity often died quickly, but some survived up to 13 years. They did not make great attractions at the zoos, caged Thylacines often where very sluggish and did not respond to affection from their human caretakers. The Thylacine remained the dominate predator in Australia until the faster dingo appeared on the Australian mainland.

It did not take long for the dingo to decimate the Thylacine population, with the only surviving members of the species being left on the island of Tasmania. When farmers moved to Tasmania in the early 1800s, the Thylacines began to kill prey on the livestock of these farmers and where seen as nothing more than pests. These livestock killings lead to a systematic slaughter of the Thylacines, with bounties being rewarded for each scalp turned in. By the early 1900s Thylacines were rare creatures, and the last scalp bounty was paid in 1909. The last reported killing of a Tasmanian Tiger was in 1930. The Thylacine was given protected status in 1933, but by that time it was too late, the last Thylacine found alive was captured and sent to the Hobart Domain Zoo just two months after the rare animal became a protected species. This last Thylacine, named Benjamin, died on September 7, 1936 after just 3 years in captivity.

The people of Australia and Tasmania mourned the loss of the last Tasmanian Tiger, and placed the now extinct animal on its official Coat of Arms. But was Benjamin the last of the Thylacine? Soon after Benjamin's death, reports of Thylacine sightings came in from the mountains of northwestern Tasmania. Australia's Animals and Birds Protection Board sent an investigative team into the area but all they came back with were some interesting reports from the inhabitants of the area. Interest was high and another expedition that was sent in 1938 found the first evidence of living Thylacines, footprints that were positively identified as belonging to Thylacines. After this expedition, World War II intervened and the next expedition did not take place until 1945. This privately funded expedition found Thylacine footprints and collected more sighting reports. In 1957 zoologist Eric R. Guiler, chairman of the Animals and Birds Protection Board, went to Broadmarsh to investigate the killing of some sheep by an unknown predator. Tracks were found that were identified as Thylacine prints. But no Thylacine where found.

Several more expeditions followed between 1957 and 1966, but these produced only more footprints and more reports of sightings from the local residents. In 1968 the Tasmania Tiger Center was established, to which people could report their Thylacine sightings. Expeditions continued to beat the brush in the wild lands of Tasmania searching for a remnant population of Thylacines. In the 1970s the World Wildlife Fund set up several automatic camera units at locations where sightings of the Thylacine were often concentrated. Bait was set and infrared beams were used to trigger the cameras, sadly the project ended with failure in 1980, no Thylacines were captured on film. In his official report, project leader Steven J. Smith of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS, stated his view that the Thylacines is extinct. Zoologist Eric Guiler later set up his own hidden camera operation, but this attempt to capture a living Thylacine on film also ended in failure. Despite the lack of photographic evidence the number of reported sightings shot up between 1970 and 1980, 104 documented sightings total.

This gave investigators new hope of finding the Thylacines still surviving in the more remote areas of Tasmania. Reports of living Thylacines also began to come in from southwestern Western Australia, which was very strange as the Thylacines were eliminated from mainland Australia thousands of years ago. On a rainy night in March of 1982 a NPWS park ranger was sleeping in the back seat of his car when something woke him up. He turned on his spotlight and turned it onto an animal about 20 feet away. The ranger reported what he saw was a Thylacine, "an adult male in excellent condition, with 12 black stripes on a sandy coat." The creature quickly ran off into near by brush, its footprints and all other evidence washed away by the rain. In order to keep people from going to the area of this sighting and disturbing a possible habitat of the last living Thylacines, the NPWS kept this report from the public until January 1984. This sighting did not prove the existence of living Thylacines to the government's satisfaction though, and no official statement was issued.

Following the rash of Thylacine sightings in Western Australia, the state's Agricultural Protection Board sent Kevin Cameron, a tracker of aboriginal descent, to investigate. Soon Cameron reported that he himself sighted and identified a living Thylacine in Western Australia, but again a simple sighting was not proof enough. Then in 1985 Cameron produced pictures that he claimed where taken of a living Thylacine, along with casts of Thylacine footprints. The pictures showed a dog like animal burrowing at the base of the tree. The head was hidden from view, but its striped back and stiff tail strongly implied that it was a Thylacine. As these pictures began to spread around the scientific community suspicions began to arise. Cameron would not say where he took the pictures, and would not give permission to have the pictures reproduced for publication. Eventually agreeing, the pictures were presented to zoologist Athol M. Douglas at the Western Australian Museum in Perth. Cameron accompanied Douglas to a photographic laboratory while he made enlargements. Douglas would later report: "When I saw the negatives, I realized Cameron's account with regard to the photographs was inaccurate.

The film had been cut, frames were missing, and the photos were taken from different angles, making it impossible for the series to have been taken in 20 or 30 seconds, as Cameron had stated. Furthermore, in one negative, there was the shadow of another person pointing what could be a 12 gauge shotgun; Cameron stated that he had been alone. It would have been practically impossible for an animal as alert as a Thylacine to remain stationary for so long while human activity was going on in its vicinity. In addition, it is significant that the animal's head does not appear in any of the photographs." The story and pictures were released in the New Scientist magazine, and its readers were soon criticizing the authenticity of the photographs. They pointed out that the animal seemed to stay dead still from photograph to photograph. And they realized by the differing lengths of the shadows that the pictures were taken over at least an hour. It would seem that the pictures were a hoax, and the specimen was a stuffed Thylacine. But the first picture, the one that showed the shadow of a person holding a gun aimed at the Thylacine, was omitted from the New Scientist story.

Douglas feels that, "The full frame of this negative is the one which shows the shadow of the man with a rigid gun like object pointing in the direction of the Thylacine at the base of the tree. This shadow was deliberately excluded in the photos published in New Scientist. If I am correct in this supposition, the Thylacine was alive when the first photo was taken, but had been dead, and frozen in rigor mortis, for several hours by the time the second photograph was taken." Douglas hoped that the carcass would surface, but that is doubtful since shooting a Thylacine is punishable by a $5000 fine and Cameron was not being helpful in shedding any further light on it. Either it was a hoax using a stuffed Thylacine, or a living Thylacine was shot, then frozen and later used to take photographs. The fact that the head is not in any of the photographs may be because the animal was shot in the head, if they were using a stuffed Thylacine, then why hide the head? In 1966 an expedition from the Western Australia Museum found a Thylacine carcass in a cave near Mundrabilla Station.

Carbon dating showed the carcass to be 4,500 years old, but that method of dating may be invalid since the body had been soaking in groundwater. Zoologist Athol Douglas reported that along with the Thylacine carcass, they also found a dingo carcass and that the dingo carcass was much more deteriorated than the Thylacine carcass. Douglas gave his opinion that the dingo carcass was not older than 20 years, and that the Thylacine carcass was not older than a year. But since the carbon dating argues against a recent death of this Thylacine, official proof of surviving Thylacines still does not exist. Cryptozoological investigator Rex Gilroy has collected various reports of Thylacine sightings from over a wide area of the rugged eastern Australian mountain ranges, from far north Queensland through New South Wales to eastern Victoria. Casts of footprints found in those areas have been verified as Thylacine prints. Gilroy even claims to have seen a Thylacine himself. Diving at night with a friend along a highway towards the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, something dashed out of the scrub along the highway and ran in front of them.

It then stopped and stared back at the headlights for a few seconds before running off into the scrub, towards Grose Valley. It was "almost the size of a full grown Alsatian dog, with fawn-colored fur and a row of blackish stripes. I have no doubt that it was a Thylacine; its appearance matched that of stuffed specimens preserved in Government museums." Another Park Ranger reported seeing a Thylacine in 1990. Ranger Peter Simon was in the Namadgi-Kosciusco National Park along the New South Wales Victoria border when he saw what he identified as a Thylacine in broad daylight at a range of 100 feet. After Peter Simon published an article on his sighting and the Thylacine mystery in The Age magazine, he received many cards and letters from Victoria residents who also claimed to have seen Thylacines.

Peter Simon said that the reports were so consistent that they, ï¿½left me in no doubt that each had seen something unusual and broadly consistent with the appearance of a Thylacine." Australian writer Tony Healy reported that on the day before Ranger Peter Simon was to have his encounter with a Thylacine, his hunting dogs refused to leave a truck that they were being transported in after they heard strange harsh panting sounds in the brush nearby. At a Benedictine monastery named New Hoacia, the secretary to the Abbot, Tony James, walked into a room early in the morning and saw a Thylacine, "We both froze, and he looked at me, in quite a fearless way, and I sense that he was just simply filled with curiosity at the sighting." The animal fled. Tony feels that perhaps the animal was feeding off the table scraps that were usually left out for the magpies every morning. Another member of the monastery also reported seeing an animal that fit the description of a Thylacine while driving from the monastery. To this day sightings of the Tasmanian Tiger, though rare, are still being reported.

Being such a unique looking creature it would be difficult to mistake the Thylacine for any other creature known to live on the island of Tasmania, ruling out mistaken identity as the explanation for these sightings. What we are left with is a compelling story of survival, one that would suggest an animal once thought to be extinct, could still be roaming the country side of Tasmania. The Evidence There is no solid physical evidence that would suggest that the Thylacine still exists. Still, a debatable carcass, footprint molds and eye witness reports are enough to keep us believing that perhaps this unique creature is still alive, in small numbers, waiting to make a come back. The Sightings In 1957 zoologist Eric R. Guiler, chairman of the Animals and Birds Protection Board, went to Broadmarsh to investigate the killing of some sheep by an unknown predator. Tracks were found that were identified as Thylacine prints. March of 1982 a NPWS park ranger was sleeping in the back seat of his car when something woke him up. He turned on his spotlight and turned it onto an animal about 20 feet away.

The ranger reported what he saw was a Thylacine, "an adult male in excellent condition, with 12 black stripes on a sandy coat." The creature quickly ran off into near by brush. In 1982 a Western Australian farming couple claimed to have lost livestock to Thylacine predation. In 1985, Kevin Cameron, a tracker of aboriginal descent, produced pictures that he claimed where taken of a living Thylacine. He also proved casts of Thylacine footprints. The pictures showed a dog like animal burrowing at the base of the tree. The head was hidden from view, but its striped back and stiff tail strongly implied that it was a Thylacine. These pictures have been the subject of much debate but are widely believed to be fakes. In 1966, an expedition from the Western Australia Museum found a Thylacine carcass in a cave near Mundrabilla Station. Carbon dating showed the carcass to be 4,500 years old, but that method of dating may be invalid since the body had been soaking in groundwater.

Zoologist Athol Douglas reported that along with the Thylacine carcass, they also found a dingo carcass and that the dingo carcass was much more deteriorated than the Thylacine carcass. Douglas gave his opinion that the dingo carcass was not older than 20 years, and that the Thylacine carcass was not older than a year. But since the carbon dating argues against a recent death of this Thylacine, official proof of surviving Thylacines still does not exist. In 1982 a Western Australian farming couple claimed to have lost livestock to Thylacine predation. In 1990, Ranger Peter Simon was in the Namadgi-Kosciusco National Park along the New South Wales Victoria border when he saw what he identified as a Thylacine in broad daylight at a range of 100 feet.

The Stats - (Where applicable) ï¿½ Size: Up to 6 Feet From Nose To Tail ï¿½ Weight: About 45 ï¿½ 55 Pounds ï¿½ Diet: Carnivorous, manly Kangaroos, Wallabies, Wombats and Birds ï¿½ Location: The Island of Tasmania, and Isolated Reports From Western Australia ï¿½ Movement: Walking Thylacine | Cryptid Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Species T. cynocephalus The first detailed scientific description was made by Tasmania's Deputy Surveyor-General, George Harris in 1808, five years after first settlement of the island. Harris originally placed the thylacine in the genus Didelphis, which had been created by Linnaeus for the American opossums, describing it as Didelphis cynocephala, the "dog-headed opossum".

Recognition that the Australian marsupials were fundamentally different from the known mammal genera led to the establishment of the modern classification scheme, In 1796, Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire created the genus Dasyurus where he placed the thylacine in 1810. To resolve the mixture of Greek and Latin nomenclature, the species name was altered to cynocephalus. In 1824, it was separated out into its own genus, Thylacinus, by Temminck. The common name derives directly from the genus name, originally from the Greek θύλακος (thýlakos), meaning "pouch" or "sack". Several studies support the thylacine as being a basal member of the Dasyuromorphia and the Tasmanian devil as its closest living relative. However, research published in Genome Research in January 2009 suggests the numbat may be more basal than the devil and more closely related to the thylacine. Hunted to Extinction During the 1800s, when the first European settlers arrived in Tasmania, many of the sheep were found dead.

Mysterious killings of sheep began to increase and the thylacines were blamed for the killings. So a bounty was put on the thylacines. Hunters began to hunt down the thylacines. This hunting of the thylacines continued on until 1909. Due to hunting and habitat loss, thylacines became extremely hard to find. A bounty hunter and a deceased thylacine. Pushing to Protect the Thylacines In 1928, committees, such as the Tasmanian Advisory Committee for Native Fauna, wanted the thylacines to be protected. Finally, in August of 1936, the thylacines were now protected by law. Last Known Sightings In 1930, Wilf Batty shot and killed a thylacine. This thylacine would be considered the last known wild thylacine. In 1933, a thylacine by the name of Benjamin, was captured and sold to the Hobart Zoo. In September of 1936, Benjamin would die due to the negligence of volunteer zookeepers. Wilf Batty and his kill.

This picture was shot in 1930 Unconfirmed Sightings There have been many sightings since the death of Benjamin. With laws protecting the thylacines, they were considered to be critically endangered. With an increase of sightings, hunters were sent out to gather evidence of thylacines' continued existence. The more searches that were conducted, the same amount of failed attempts were made. In 1986, thylacines were declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Tasmanian government. Even after being declared extinct, sightings continues to increase. Sightings are seen in Tasmania, Mainland Australia and New Guinea. Cloning Plans The results from the mouse embryo. Plans to clone a thylacine were made by the Australian Museum in 1999. In late 2002, scientists were able to extract DNA from a thylacine pup preserved in an alcohol container. In 2005, all plans to clone a thylacine failed after finding that the DNA was too badly degraded.

In 2008, at the University of Texas, scientists were able to reconstruct a bone gene, which were from 100 year-old ethanol-fixed thylacine tissue samples from museums. Samples of the same bone gene were injected inside a mouse embryo, and it came back with surprising results. In 2013, plans to de-extinction many extinct animals, including the thylacines. Modern Sightings The Australian Rare Fauna Research Association reports having 3,800 sightings on file from mainland Australia since the 1936 extinction date, while the Mystery Animal Research Centre of Australia recorded 138 up to 1998, and the Department of Conservation and Land Management recorded 65 in Western Australia over the same period. Independent thylacine researchers Buck and Joan Emburg of Tasmania report 360 Tasmanian and 269 mainland post-extinction 20th-century sightings, figures compiled from a number of sources. On the mainland, sightings are most frequently reported in Southern Victoria.Some sightings have generated a large amount of publicity.

In 1973, Gary and Liz Doyle shot ten seconds of 8mm film showing an unidentified animal running across a South Australian road. Modern Sightings of the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) Attempts to positively identify the creature as a thylacine have been impossible due to the poor quality of the film. In 1982 a researcher with the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Hans Naarding, observed what he believed to be a thylacine for three minutes during the night at a site near Arthur River in northwestern Tasmania. The sighting led to an extensive year-long government-funded search. In 1985, Aboriginal tracker Kevin Cameron produced five photographs which appear to show a digging thylacine, which he stated he took in western Australia. In January 1995, a Parks and Wildlife officer reported observing a thylacine in the Pyengana region of northeastern Tasmania in the early hours of the morning. Later searches revealed no trace of the animal. In 1997, it was reported that locals and missionaries near Mount Carstensz in Western New Guinea had sighted thylacines.

The locals had apparently known about them for many years but had not made an official report. Tassie Tiger Thylacine passes extinction test › News in Science (ABC Science) Map: University of Queensland 4072 Tassie tiger People should stop wasting time and money looking for the Tasmanian tiger, according to new Australian research. Dr Diana Fisher and Dr Simon Blomberg from the University of Queensland 's school of biological sciences report their findings in a recent issue of Conservation Biology . Since the last wild thylacine was captured in 1933, there have been ongoing searches and numerous unconfirmed sightings of the carnivorous marsupial. But, says Fisher, such efforts are misguided. "There's been more search efforts for the thylacine than any other mammal globally," she says. "I think that's just a waste of money." In the past, says Fisher, up to a third of mammals classified as extinct or probably extinct have later been rediscovered. For example, the Brazilian Tree Rat was recently found, 180 years later after it was declared extinct. She says up until 1996 an animal was considered extinct simply if it had been missing for 50 years.

But recently more stringent tests for extinction have been developed. Extinction tests Fisher and Blomberg used two tests to analyse the likely status of 116 mammals classified as extinct or possibly extinct on the The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . One test uses the frequency of confirmed sightings. According to this method, species are more likely to be extinct when they are seen frequently before suddenly disappearing for an extended period of time. The test can also be used to estimate the date of an animal's extinction. This method is fine if there have been five or more sightings of an animal but, says Fisher, 70 per cent of purportedly extinct mammals are known from fewer than five sightings. For such animals, she and Blomberg developed a second test which uses a set of other criteria. According to this method a species is less likely to be extinct if it has a large range, has declined due to habitat loss, was seen fairly recently before its apparent extinction, and there has been little effort made to search for it. Such animals are more likely to be lurking somewhere where we haven't looked, says Fisher. The researchers found that most of the mammals they tested were categorised correctly by the red list.

This included the thylacine, which is categorised as extinct. Thylacines were quite frequently sighted before they disappeared, says Fisher, and this, together with the huge effort made to look for them, virtually rules out the chance that they still exist. The researchers estimate the thylacine became extinct in the wild in 1935. Other findings But, while the tests suggest the red list is largely accurate, they do suggest several species listed as critically endangered are actually already extinct. These include the Yangtze River dolphin or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) and the Christmas Island pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi). Fisher says while these animals have only been missing for less than 10 years, there has been a thorough, but unsuccessful, search for these species. As well as providing a more comprehensive test of extinction the new tests can be used to help prioritise conservation efforts, says Fisher. "You can use this method to work out which things you should put more effort into looking for," she says.

Fisher and Blomberg found the most likely mammals to be rediscovered are the Montane monkey-faced bat (Pteralopex pulchra), Armenian myotis (Myotis hajastanicus), Alcorn's pocket gopher (Pappogeomys alcorni) and Wimmer's shrew (Crocidura wimmeri). Parks & Wildlife Service - Thylacine, or Tasmanian Tiger Aboriginal art depicting thylacine, Kakadu, Northern Australia (Photo by Ina Johnson) Breeding is believed to have occurred during winter and spring. A thylacine, like all marsupials, was tiny and hairless when born. It crawled into the mother's rear-opening pouch, and attached itself to one of four teats. Four young could be carried at a time, but the usual litter size was probably three. As the pouch-young grew, the pouch expanded, and became so big that it reached almost to the ground. Large pouch-young had fur with stripes. When old enough to leave the pouch, the young stayed in a lair such as a deep rocky cave, well-hidden nest or hollow log, whilst the mother hunted.

Thylacines lived in zoos for up to 9 years, but never bred in captivity. Their life expectancy in the wild was probably 5-7 years. Diet The thylacine was a meat-eater. In fact, the world's largest marsupial carnivore since the extinction of Thylacoleo the marsupial 'lion'. Its diet is believed to have consisted largely of wallabies, but included various small animals and birds. Since European settlement, the thylacine also preyed upon sheep and poultry, although the extent of this was much exaggerated. Occasionally, the thylacine scavenged. In captivity, thylacines were fed on dead rabbits and wallabies, which they devoured entirely, as well as beef and mutton. Distribution and habitat Fossils and Aboriginal rock paintings show that the thylacine once lived throughout Australia and New Guinea. The most recent thylacine remains have been dated as being about 2 200 years old. Predation and competition from the dingo may have contributed to the thylacine's disappearance from mainland Australia and New Guinea. Bass Strait protected a relict population of thylacines in Tasmania.

When Europeans arrived in 1803, thylacines were widespread in Tasmania. Their preferred habitat was a mosaic of dry eucalypt forest, wetlands and grasslands. They emerged to hunt on grassy plains and open woodlands during the evening, night and early morning. Why are they extinct? The arrival of European settlers marked the start of a tragic period of conflict that led to the thylacine's extinction. The introduction of sheep in 1824 led to conflict between the settlers and thylacines. 1830 Van Diemens Land Co. introduced a thylacine bounties. 1888 Tasmanian Parliament placed a price of £1 on thylacine's head. 1909 Government bounty scheme terminated. 2184 bounties paid. 1910 Thylacines rare -- sought by zoos around the world. 1926 London Zoo bought its last thylacine for £150. 1933 Last thylacine captured, Florentine Valley, sold Hobart Zoo.

1936 World's last captive thylacine died in Hobart Zoo, ( 7/9/36). 1936 Tasmanian tiger added to the list of protected Wildlife. 1986 Thylacine declared extinct by international standards. Do they still exist? In 1863, John Gould, a famous naturalist, predicted that the Tasmanian tiger was doomed to extinction: When the comparatively small island of Tasmania becomes more densely populated, and its primitive forests are intersected with roads from the eastern to the western coast, the numbers of this singular animal will speedily diminish, extermination will have its full sway, and it will then, like the Wolf in England and Scotland, be recorded as an animal of the past... John Gould, 1863 Every effort was made, by snaring, trapping, poisoning and shooting, to fulfil his prophecy. Bounty records indicate that a sudden decline in thylacine numbers occurred early in the 20th century. Hunting and habitat destruction leading to population fragmentation, are believed to have been the main causes of extinction. The remnant population was further weakened by a distemper-like disease.

The last known thylacine died in Hobart Zoo on 7th September, 1936. Sightings and Searches Since 1936, no conclusive evidence of a thylacine has been found. However, the incidence of reported thylacine sightings has continued. Most sightings occur at night, in the north of the State, in or near areas where suitable habitat is still available. Although the species is now considered to be 'probably extinct', these sightings provide some hope that the thylacine may still exist. There have been hundreds of sightings since 1936, many of which may have been clear cases of mis-identification. However, in a detailed study of sightings between 1934 and 1980, Steven Smith concluded that of a total of 320 sightings, just under half could be considered good sightings. Nonetheless, all sightings have remained inconclusive. Interestingly, just as many sightings of equally good quality are reported from mainland Australia -- perhaps a comment on the poor evidence that sightings alone represent. There have been a number of searches for the animal. None of these searches have been successful in proving the continued existence of the animal.

The results of a few of these searches are given below: 1937 - Seargent Summers leads a search in the north-west of he state, recording many recent sightings by other persons in a large area between the Arthur and Pieman Rivers, although the party itself did not see any thylacines. He recommends a sanctuary in that area. 1945 - Well-known naturalist David Fleay searches the Jane River to Lake St Clair area, finding possible thylacine footprints. 1959 - Eric Guiler leads a search in the far north-west, an area which produced many bounties and finds what appeared to be thylacine footprints. 1963 - Eric Guiler leads a search in the Sandy Cape area but finds no evidence. 1968 - Jeremy Griffiths, James Malley and Bob Brown embark on a major search. Although they collect reports of sightings, they find no evidence of the thylacine. 1980 - Parks and Wildlife Officers, Steven Smith and Adrian Pyrke, search a wide area of the State using three automatic cameras. No evidence of thylacines is found.

1982-83 - Parks and Wildlife Officer, Nick Mooney, undertakes an extensive but unsuccessful search to confirm the 1982 sighting reported by Hans Naarding near the Arthur River in the State's north-west. 1984 - A search in Tasmania's highlands by Tasmanian Wildlife Park owner, Peter Wright, fails to turn up conclusive evidence. 1988-93 - Separate photographic searches by wildlife photographer, Dave Watts and Ned Terry fail to record a thylacine. Hope for the Future? The thylacine is the only mammal to have (possibly) become extinct in Tasmania since European settlement. This is in vivid contrast to mainland Australia, which has the worst record of mammalian extinctions of any country on Earth, with nearly 50% of its native mammals becoming extinct in the past 200 years. Tasmania is unique in that our fauna is abundant, and that the State acts as a refuge - a final hope -- for many species that have recently become extinct on mainland Australia. Despite our wishes to have a perfect record, the lack of any hard evidence of the thylacine's continued existence supports the increasingly held notion that the species is extinct.

Nonetheless, the incidence of sightings introduces a reluctance among some authorities to make empahatic statements on the status of the species. Even if there did exist a few remaining individuals, it is unlikely that such a tiny population would be able to maintain a sufficient genetic diversity to allow for the viable perpetuation of the species in the long-term. Recent attention has been given to the possibility of cloning the species. However, it is very unlikely to be achievable from a single individual preserved in alchohol. Even if cloning were possible, it should be asked whether such effort and expense is justifiable when many other species are currently threatened with extinction, and when we allow the same processes that threatenen habitats and wildlife to continue. Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the loss of the thylacine is to ensure that the rich natural heritage of our island State is no longer jeopardised. Further Reading ABC Video (1994). Clash of The Carnivores. Natural History Unit. Guiler, E. (1985). Thylacine: The Tragedy of The Tasmanian Tiger. Oxford Uni. Press. Guiler, E. & Godard, P. (1998).

Tasmanian Tiger: A lesson to be learnt. Abrolhos Publishing. Park, A. (1986). A Tasmanian Tiger Extinct or Merely Elusive. Aust Geographic. Vol. 1 No 3. Smith, S. J. (1980). The Tasmanian Tiger. NPWS, Tas. Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) TASMANIAN TIGER TASMANIAN WOLF (Thylacinus cyanocephaplus) "dog-headed pouched-dog" It is generally agreed that this carnivorous (meat eating) marsupial is extinct, though occasionally there is local unconfirmed sightings in its "former" wild habitat of Tasmania.

DESCRIPTION The thylacine is the shape and size of a big dog (especially like a dog in forequarters and head) , and observation suggestion that it acted in a very dog like manner (ie running, sitting, sun baking, etc) The stripes started 1/2 way down the back and extended to the tail, and were believed to be for camouflage (eg in sunny + shady forests) The base colour of the animal was brownish (fawn through to dark brown) with a cream coloured belly One very unique aspect was that its jaw could open extremely wide. Its tail was very straight more like a thin Kangaroos tail and did not wag like a dogs The female has a backward facing pouch, and extraordinary the male also has a pouch, his though to protect his testicles LOCATION & HABITAT Originally thought to roam all over the mainland of Australia, it was confined to the island of Tasmania for the last 3,000 years. There has been no confirmed sighting in the wild since 1932 The Thylacine was found in open forest and scrubland close to its grazing prey of wallabies etc and close to the protection of forests.

They were a nocturnal creature sleeping by day in the safety of dense vegetation DEMISE The reason the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) became extinct is many fold Below is some of the reasons *) The arrival of Native aborigines with their dogs *) The arrival of the dingo from mainland Australia, is thought to be the main reason for the Thylacines demise. The dingo hunted for the same food as the Thylacine, but was a lot more efficient and adaptable. *) The arrival of European settlers ..............-) The loss of habitat due to farming and grazing ..............-) Protection of their sheep etc ..............-) Bounty hunters reaping Government payment for dead "Tigers" The last thylacine to be shot in the wild was in 1932 and the last to die in captivity was in 1936. FEEDING (HUNTING) They were nocturnal hunters (especially at dusk), hunting other marsupials (Wallabies and smaller animals + sheep) at night by smell using its pace and stamina to run down smaller animals until they became tired. It would use its wide opening jaws to rip out its preys neck and feed only once from the fresh kill.

(it seems Thylacine only liked fresh meat) They were solitary hunters it seems BREEDING The Thylacines it seemed bred once a year, with the young being carried in their mothers backward facing pouch, which had 4 teats. After approximately 6-8 months the young now too big for the pouch were left alone in a sheltered place whilst their mother went for food. LINKS Tasmanian Tiger 'was killed by man' - Telegraph Australia Tasmanian Tiger 'was killed by man' Australian researchers investigating the extinction of the country's Tasmanian Tiger put the fault solely with humans rather than disease. Their final extinction has long been linked to a distemper-like disease that tore through the last remaining tigers, but a University of Adelaide team said it had proven that disease was not a central cause. Photo: TASMANIAN MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY 9:31AM GMT 31 Jan 2013

Question: The Thylacine, thought to be extinct, was a carnivorous marsupial last sighted on which island?
Answer: Tasmania